Please bring me back to earth on capacitor selection for speaker crossovers

[Pfenning]

Jim, thanks for the reply. I already have the Sonicaps, so I will give them a try. I did replace the Eminence Omega 15" with the JBL 2226, and the difference is amazing. The Omega sounded pretty good, and they fit my budget when I built them, but the 2226 is a big step up in sound quality and extends much lower. I haven't even turn on my subs since installing them.

Update on the crossovers upgrade path. When I opened up my cabinets to replace the Omegas with the 2226's, I realized I had a very early version of the Pi crossover, and it wasn't going to work very well to do the upgrades in steps, as I had planned. I wanted to upgrade the caps, resistors, and inductors, in stages to see the difference (or lack of) with each component. The existing cross overs just didn't have enough real estate. I ordered the latest cross over boards from Pi, and plan to build up the new cross overs complete with all new components. I had already decided to move the crossovers to outside the speakers for easy access. I have some Russian Teflon caps for experimenting with bypassing, and also some gen 2 Sonicaps. I will build the crossovers without the bypass to begin with.

I'm all on board with soldering the leads from my speakers directly to the crossover. How would you recommend I get the wires out of the cabinet? Just drill holes in the cabinet and dab some silicon around the wire to seal it up?

I typically move at a snails pace on projects, because I have about 5 going at a time.    Currently I'm enjoying the JBL's and trying to finish up a pair of work tables for my garage, made from reclaimed oak (this turned into a massive project for me, with my first attempt at mortise and tenon joinery). As soon as those are done, I'll start working on the cross over upgrades.

I will say that getting onto the upgrade path has renewed my enthusiasm in sitting down and listening to music.

Pfenning

[Paul Birkeland]

I wanted to upgrade the caps, resistors, and inductors, in stages to see the difference (or lack of) with each component.

FYI - sometimes the DCR of a crossover inductor contributes to proper operation of the crossover circuit.  I would recommend checking with the manufacturer to see if any of the values are critical.

[Jim R.]

Hi Pfenning,

Sounds like you're on the right path, so I won't derail you any further :-).

As far as getting the wires from the crossovers to the speakers, you can do it as you propose, but a much neater and cleaner solution would be to use something like Neutrik  SpeakCons, and just pick one with the number of pins you need. These are of course, a connection in the path, but I think that getting the crossovers out of the vibration inside the cabinet is going to be the larger improvement. You should see what Audio Note charges for the same speakers with the crossover external to the speaker. Not that it makes any sense in terms of pricing, but it does provide a sonic advantage -- how much depends on too many things for me to even guess at -- just have to do it and listen for yourself.

I keep trying to get a buddy of mine who has homemade kit AN speakers to try this, but so far he hasn't done it.

I'd love to see that workbench, but that would be impossible -- I'd have to feel it :-). A mortising jig for a drill press can be really useful -- you really don't need a dedicated mortiser.

-- Jim

[Pfenning]

Jim, again, thanks for the help. This time I used my router to get all the mortise slots cut, and then touched them up with a chisel as needed. It wasn't too bad of work, actually kind of fun. I like the hand work aspect of it. The killer was it was 32 times  . I sure hope they last me a lifetime.

Pfenning

[Pfenning]

FYI - sometimes the DCR of a crossover inductor contributes to proper operation of the crossover circuit.  I would recommend checking with the manufacturer to see if any of the values are critical.

Good call PB. I'll check with Wayne.

Pfenning